Spiritual-one: Blog on Spiritual Growth & Development

What Type of Meditation Techniques are Best For Me?

By Sonia Gallagher

What exactly is meditation? You ask people and they will very likely refer you to the internet to "Google" it. On the internet, you'll find thousands of web pages defining the exercise of meditating and trying to explain it in their own terms. Unfortunately, a lot of these sites explain meditating in a very complicated and esoteric fashion...extremely difficult to understand and just plain boring.

So far, the site that most clearly defines meditation is Wikipedia.  One of the best ways to define this exercise is probably an action or exercise that increases your awareness. 

In specific, meditative techniques allow you to achieve an awareness of self.  It does this because meditation techniques focus the mind to pass the clutter of thoughts and jumbled thinking patterns.  The idea is to be able to think clearer and become more relaxed.  Hence, all these techniques allow us to accomplish this.

The stresses of life can have a dramatic effect on us.  As we attempt to deal with all the various problems that come our way, we are mentally worn down.  Much in the same way our bodies need proper exercise to remain healthy, so do our minds need proper stimulation to stay efficient.  By becoming better attuned with our consciousness, we achieve this.  In fact, practicing meditation techniques is really the only way to permanently accomplish this endeavor.  If you meditate properly, you free your mind of burdensome and chaotic thought patterns.  Who doesn't want to be less stressed and more focused?

Ok, so basically these techniques will help you become more relaxed, think clearer, concentrate better and more.  But these things in and of themselves are not the act of meditating.  Concentrating on something is not meditation.  Finding one self in a relaxing position or performing certain poses is not it either.  There are a number of meditation techniques that will help a person achieve plenty of benefits in their life.

Popular Meditation Techniques

1. Zen - One of the most popular and well known meditation techniques is called Zen Meditation.  This meditation technique was developed by Zen monks.  Zen is about achieving a state of absolute stillness and emptiness.   While Zen meditative techniques are regarded as some of the easiest and most effective to perform, they take time and effort to master.  This technique is centered on sitting in the lotus position to achieve a stillness of thought.

2. Mantra - Another well known meditation technique is Mantra.  Mantra is an exercise that many people tend to associate with meditating in their minds.  Mantra techniques involve chanting or 'mantra repetition.'  This is a meditation technique that achieves a state of awareness through the use of sound. In fact, one of the most popular techniques in the Unites States - transcendental meditation (TM)- is an example of a mantra meditation.

3. Vipassana - A third well known technique is Vipassana.  Vipassana is a Buddhist technique that focuses on breathing.  If we consider the fact that breathing is an every moment occurrence and a necessity for living, then we can begin to see how concentrating on this aspect of life can have a significance.  Vipassana is a meditation technique that essentially teaches one to be aware of their breathing, from which (when done properly) there is a state of awareness that is attained.

Other Techniques

There are many other techniques that are available.  These three just happen to be the most well known and practiced in the west.  What you will notice is that all three have the same goal in mind - which is to attain a higher state of awareness.  Remember, one of the most common purposes of meditating is to become better aware of the self, which in turn, produces a healthier mind.  It's interesting that regardless of the differences between meditation techniques, the goal remains the same.

All of the differences in the techniques mentioned in this article are actually examples of how each of them lead to the same goal- that of achieving awareness. It's like the saying goes "all roads lead to Rome."

In this case, all these different techniques lead to enlightenment and awareness in addition to many other kinds of mental, psychological, social, and physical benefits. 

Whether the meditation technique you use focuses on sitting, walking, laying down, breathing, repeating a mantra, or chanting, it will lead to benefits in your daily life and to benefits in the lives of those around you. 

Sonia Gallagher is a recovering workaholic, personality type A attorney.  She now shares the benefits of meditating with other stressed out parents, students, business owners, and professionals- who can most benefit from doing meditation (10 minutes) in their daily lives.

Read the rest of this free 5 day article series and learn to meditate today! Also, follow her on Twitter and find out what she is growing at her Meditation Garden.

Sonia Gallagher is a recovering attorney who now publishes information on meditation in an easy to understand, plain English manner. After practicing in one of the most stressful professions in the US, she now shares her experience with everyone looking to find relaxation and tranquility through meditation. Make sure to sign up for the Garden Newsletter at My Meditation Garden and to participate in the Meditation Garden's community.

Will a Spiritual Approach Help Create a Better Future?

By Cheryl A. Chatfield, Ph.D. 

Despite the fear, gloom and doom in the world today, our future may surprise us. Perhaps the potential is just different from what we expect. Perhaps looking at a practical spirituality will help us see a better outcome. A favorite science fiction book of mine, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, is a great story that forces us to look ahead to events that may be totally impossible for us to fathom at this time.

In the 70s and then again prior to the turn of this new millennium, many people worried about "earth changes" and "end times" and prepared for survival, expecting a disastrous occurrence. While that hasn't happened, many still fear and project such an event. Is a catastrophe possible? Perhaps. But what if there is no terrible incident? I don't know what our future holds, but I do know we need to be very open to any of the potential scenarios, some that we may not even be able to imagine.

That's what I feel Childhood's End represents. This novel shows, in a surprising twist, how what is feared may, in fact, be just an opportunity with enormous potential. What we fear may be an ending that we know intuitively rather than a justifiable concern. In this novel, the ending was connected with our past fears of the devil, which turned out to be friendly creatures in the image of a horned devil coming to help with our next stage of evolution.

I'm not suggesting an event as presented in Clarke's book, but his ideas allow us to expand our thinking and force us to open to new ideas. We can look at the world with different eyes. We may be able to imagine a better outcome by focusing on a spiritual outlook, not a materialistic one. Change will occur, no matter what we do. Our role is to accept that change, not be frightened by an unknown.

The title of Clarke's book is significant. We are at the end of our "childhood" as humans. Now is the time to grow up and assume responsibility for our actions. Now is the time to define our spirituality. Now is the time to define our spirituality. How we do that is our choice. That decision will define how we influence, accept and adjust to change. That decision will create our future. 

Cheryl A. Chatfield, Ph.D. is a writer, teacher and inspirational speaker. This article is an excerpt from her recent Do It Yourself Guide To Spirituality: Seven Simple Steps. Visit http://NottInstitute.org to receive a free monthly Practical Spirituality Newsletter. The Nottingham Institute is a nonprofit organization that promotes material for an everyday, practical spirituality for people who don't find answers in traditional religions.

How Do I Live A Spiritual Life?

"You mean there's NOT a right answer, one that you guys have and I'm just too dumb to see?"  So, exclaimed one person during a reflection on spirituality. What he realized is that spiritual growth; acceptance, awareness comes not from finding some right answer, but from the process of learning to see and accept what is.

 

A hermit once said that what we desperately need is to face reality, to face what really is.  This is not some gloomy pronouncement on the foolishness of optimist.  Rather, it is an invitation to see with clear eyes, to look at what is rather than trying to conform reality to our expectations or fears.  This does not mean either focusing only on what people judge as bad things, nor hoping that what people judge to be good things are just around the corner.  It is a way that is outside of the passions of both hope and fear.

Have you ever just watched your thoughts go by without getting caught up in them, either mentally or emotionally or both?  Imagine you are sitting on a porch, and your thoughts are cars that drive past.  You see them appear, drive by you, and disappear in the distance, without jumping up to chase them.  At first, it may seem like you are a puppy who chases everything that goes past.  It's like a kind of spiritual ADHD.  But with practice spiritual growth, acceptance, awareness and peace come. It becomes easier and easier to not be controlled by one's passing thoughts.

This kind of awareness is not limited to a quiet meditation room with proper breathing, an upright posture, and crossed legs.  Rather, spiritual growth, acceptance, awareness are all elements that can be brought to bear on every aspect of life.  If one is sitting, one can be aware.  If one is walking to get the mail, one can be aware.  If one is standing on a crowded bus with music blaring and people talking on their cell phones, one can be aware.  Accepting what is, seeing reality with clear eyes, can happen anywhere, at any time.

 

It is important, especially for people who are beginning this spiritual path, to be gentle with ones self.  Judgments are not necessary when seeing what is, either judgments of oneself or of the world.  How does "I'm such an idiot, I can't even watch my own thoughts for three seconds!" fit in with spiritual growth, acceptance, awareness?  It is just merely another thought, one that will pass.  It is not necessary to follow that thought or be controlled by it. Simply see it, and let it go.

 

Anthony Girouard